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Fonds Chinois De La Bibliothèque Du DEA SCIENCES DE L'INFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION LES FONDS CHINOIS DE lA BIBLIOTHEQUE DU ROI 1719-1742 BENEDICTE HERAUD Sous la direction de M. DOMINIQUE VARRY annde 1992-1993 DEA SCIENCES DE LTNFORMATION ET DE LA COMMUNICATION UNTVERSITELYON2 UNIVERSITELYON 3 ENSSIB LES FONDS CHINOIS DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE DU ROI 1719-1742 BENEDICTE HERAUD Sous la direction de M. DOMINIQUE VARRY annee 1992-1993 REMERCIEMENTS Je tiens a remercier tout particulierement Madame Monique Cohen, Conservateur general du departement des Manuscrits orientaux de la Bibliotheque nationale qui m'a guidee et conseillee dans mon travail. Je remercie aussi Monsieur Jean-Louis Boully, Responsable du fonds chinois de la Bibliotheque municipale de Lyon. Son soutien et ses encouragements m'ont ete fort precieux. Enfin, je remercie ma mere sans qui je n'aurais pas pu finir ce memoire. Merci a Annie Vernay-Nouri et Sabine Zrak pour les corrections qu'elles ont bien voulu apporter a mon travail. Merci encore a Sophie Albenque pour le pret sans condition de son ordinateur. SOMMAIRE INTRODUCTION page 1 I- LES FONDS CHINOIS DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE A) HISTORIQUE DES FONDS AVANT 1720 7 B)L'ABBE BIGNON ET LE FONDS CHINOIS DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE a) Arcadio Huang et les debuts de la sinologie en France 12 b) Etienne Fourmont 14 c) La politique d'acquisition 17 d) Le catalogue de 1739 22 i II- L'ABBE BIGNON OU UNE CONNAISSANCE DE LA CHINE AU XVIIIeme SIECLE A) JEAN-PAUL BIGNON (1662-1743) 27 B)SA BIBLIOTHEQUE PRIVEE 31 a) Les relations de voyage 32 b) Les oeuvres jesuites 37 c) Les ouvrages chinois 41 III- LES LIVRES COLLECTES PAR LES PERES JESUITES A)LES MATHEMATICIENS DU ROI 47 a) Joseph de Premare S.J. 49 b) Dominique Parrenin S.J. 59 B)LES OUVRAGES ARRIVES EN FRANCE ENTRE 1728 ET 1733 64 a) Les ouvrages envoyes de Chine par le pere de Premare S.J. 66 b) Les ouvrages envoyes de Chine par le pere Parrenin S.J. 69 CONCLUSION 72 BIBLIOGRAPHIE I a VIII ANNEXES SIGNEFICATION DES NOMS DES ZONES DECRITES A) ESSAI DE CATALOGAGE DU FONDS CHINOIS DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE MUNICIPALE DE LYON ENVOYE DE CHINE PAR LE PERE PARRENIN 3 IMPRESSIONS CHINOISES 4 (EUVRES JESUITES I) Livres religieux 6 II) Livres de mathematiques et d'astronomie 12 III) Le pere jesuite Adam Schall von Bell (1592-1666) 20 B)ESSAI DE CATALOGAGE DU FONDS CHINOIS DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE NATION ALE ENVOYE DE CHINE PAR LE PERE DE PREMARE 23 IMPRESSIONS CHINOISES I) Les Classiques 24 II) Dictionnaires et nomenclatures 30 III) Philosophie et morale 32 IV) Litterature et poesie 33 V) Medecine 36 VI) Theatre 36 VII) Edit imperial 3 7 CEUVRES JESUITES 38 INTRODUCTION De nombreuses etudes ont ete menees sur 1'influence de la decouverte de la pensee, de la morale, des religions et des coutumes chinoises au XVIIIeme siecle. Comme le resume Michel de Certeau1 : "... la decouverte d'humanites inconnues ouvre, a travers l'apologie du 'bon sauvage' ou du 'sage chinois', une mise en cause des valeurs traditionnelles et deteriore le credit accorde a l'enseignement intellectuel et religieux regu du passe." La decouverte des "Indes", terme qui englobait tous les pays lointains et fabuleux de l'Amerique jusqu'au Siam, a favorise l'essor de 1'Europe moderne et capitaliste. Les perspectives d'echanges commerciaux ont ete un facteur decisif dans l'envoi des Frangais en Asie pour un homme comme Colbert. Celui-ci desirait concurrencer rapidement l'avance prise par les Portugais et les Hollandais en Extreme-Orient. Cependant, il ne faut pas negliger l'influence que ces decouvertes ont eu sur l'art, dans les chinoiseries du XVIIIeme siecle ou dans le style "rocaille" sous le regne de Louis XV, ainsi que sur l'evolution de la pensee politique et religieuse. ' M. de CERTEAU.La faiblesse de croire. Paris, Le Seuil, 1987, page 33. 1 Plus encore qu'a d'autres religions ou a d'autres systdmes sociaux, les missionnaires et les voyageurs ont fini par se heurter a d'autres hommes. II est amusant de constater, dans le cas des Chinois, comme les premieres descriptions de ces sujets de 1'Empereur omettent les caracteres physiques qui les differencient des occidentaux. L'approche de 1'Empire chinois par les Frangais s'est situee longtemps a un niveau intellectuel et religieux. Des le milieu du XVIIeme siecle la France a entretenu des rapports d'ordre plutdt spirituel avec la Chine. L'exemple le plus celebre en est l'interminable "Querelle des Rites". La venue de livres chinois n'est pas etrangere a cette transformation de la pensee et au bouleversement de certaines valeurs. Louis XIV qui desirait posseder la plus riche bibliotheque du monde a encourage 1'accumulation d'ouvrages imprimes et manuscrits venant des quatre coins du globe. Les Jesuites, missionnaires du roi, n'ont pas failli a cette tache. Hs ont constitue une grande partie des fonds chinois de l'actuelle Bibliotheque nationale. Ces collections ont formees longtemps une des curiosites de la Bibliotheque royale. Avec 1'arrivee de l'abbe Bignon a la tete de cet etablissement en 1719, le traitement des livres et les acquisitions prennent une nouvelle ampleur. 2 Plus largement, I'arrivee et I'etude des livres ont ouvert la naissance de nouvelles sciences. Ainsi, dans une premiere partie de ce travail, nous retracerons a grands traits l'histoire de ces fonds chinois a la Bibliotheque royale au XVIIeme et XVIIIeme siecles. Nous verrons quelles ont pu etre les grandes directives en faveur de la collection chinoise jusqu'a la parution du catalogue d'Etienne Fourmont en 1742, soit un an apres le depart de Bignon. Dans un second chapitre, nous etudierons quelles ont pu etre les connaissances de Jean-Paul Bignon en matiere de livres chinois ou qui concernaient le monde chinois. Grace a son interet pour cet empire meconnu on assiste, au XVIIIeme siecle, aux debuts de la sinologie. Enfin, dans une troisieme et derniere partie, nous analyserons les circonstances dans lesquelles le dernier fonds chinois important de cette epoque a pu etre constitue par Joseph de Premare S.J. pour l'abbe Bignon. II nous a semble interessant parallelement de decrire les particularites du fonds destine au college de la Trinite a Lyon, collecte a la meme epoque par le pere Dominique Parrenin S.J. Ces deux missionnaires differaient dans leurs domaines de recherches. Le Pdre Parrenin se specialisa dans les sciences astronomiques et medicales. Le Pere de Premare s'enferma dans des 3 etudes linguistiques qui 1'amenerent a une grande connaissance de la langue chinoise. II se laissa malheureusement influencer par des theories extravagantes, ce qui lui fit du tort a son epoque. L'ideal aurait ete de pouvoir comparer point par point les etapes d'acquisitions, de traitement et de conservation du fonds du College de la Trinite de Lyon avec celles du fonds de la Bibliotheque royale. Cependant les archives jesuites de Lyon venant a manquer, l'accent sera mis sur le fonds "donne a l'abbe Bignon" entre 1728 et 1732 pour la "Bibliotheque du Roy". Les deux fonds ont fait l'objet d'un catalogue qui se veut aussi precis que possible. II est evident qu'aucun catalogage satisfaisant aux normes actuelles n'existait pour ces deux collections d'ouvrages. Celui de la Bibliotheque municipale de Lyon est incomplet, les auteurs, les dates ne sont pas precisees, parfois meme les titres sont inexacts2. On ne trouve aucune mention des mesures telles qu'elles apparaissent dans le travail presente. Ceci est valable pour le catalogue de Maurice Courant3 . Comme le signale justement Jean- Pierre Drege4 : 2 MOLINIER,DESVERNAY.Catalogue gen6ral des manuscrits des hihliotheques de France. Departements. Tome XXX Lvon. 1900. 3 M. COURANT, Cataloeue des livres chinois. coreens. iaponais. Paris 1900-1912. 4 J.-P.DREGE, "Comptes rendus [de lecture] du catalogue de 1'exposition Impression de Chine a la Bibliothdque nationale par M.Cohen et N.Monnet", Etudes chinoises. vol. XII, Paris, Afec, 1993, p.170. 4 "(•••) les occasions sont trop rares de pouvoir examiner les richesses en editions chinoises anciennes de nos bibliotheques (...). Ces editions sont souvent mal connues, plus mal parfois que celle des bibliotheques chinoises ou japonaises, en raison de catalogues vieillis, incomplets ou depasses, comme ceux de Courant ou de Douglas. Ajoutons que 1'histoire du livre chinois n'a pas atteint non plus la reconnaissance et le succes de 1'histoire du livre occidental." L'interet d'un tel travail consistait a rendre compte des fonds de maniere normative et accessible au non sinologue. II est certain que ces catalogues ne constituent pas le but du memoire de DEA, mais le materiau de base. J'espere toutefois qu'ils pourront servir un jour a d'eventuels lecteurs... 5 I - LES FONDS CHINOIS LA BIBLIOTHEQUE ROYALE A) HISTORIQUE DES FONDS AVANT 1720 II est difficile de connaitre precisement les debuts de la collection royale d'ouvrages en langue chinoise. Traditionnellement, les dons de Mazarin resterent les seules possessions en cette langue jusqu'en 1680. A cette date, le Pere Philippe Couplet S.J. et d'autres missionnaires de la Compagnie constitu&rent, a leur retour, un fonds comprenant une majorite de Classiques (20 titres), dont Couplet fut le promoteur en France, ainsi que des livres de medecine, de pharmacopee, des recueils de formules et des traites de medecine specialisee (13 titres). Henri Omont1 precise que les premi&res directives d'achats datent du voyage officiel au Siam. Le chevalier de Chaumont (1640-?), l'abbe de Choisy (1644-1724), accompagnes des six premiers "Mathematiciens du Roi" les Peres jesuites Tachard, Visdelou, Bouvet, de Fontaney, Gerbillon et Le Comte embarquerent sur un vaisseau et une fregate a Brest en 1685.
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